Rainbow Foam Dough

Like many sensory materials, this one has several names.  I've seen it all over, but from what I can tell it started with a mention by the Ooey Gooey Lady on Facebook and has been done by several bloggers at this point.  I always see this pin float by me on Pinterest - and now that I've played with the sensory material, I do think Foam Dough is the best name for it.  

This post contains affiliate links for your convenience.

I was expecting it to be pretty fun, but WOW IS IT FUN.  You really ought to try it.  Because you will LOVE it.  We had one of S's grandmas staying with us this weekend and she and I just could not stop playing with this dough.  It's a safe bet that an activity is a total win if any adults around are just as engrossed with playing as the kid(s).   Now that I've hopefully convinced you to try it, I will warn you that it is messy.  Like really messy.  Maybe the messiest thing I've played with?  It cleaned up just fine for us, but I am thinking most people would rather play with this in a big bowl/tub/bin outside.  :)

Foam Dough has two ingredients in a roughly one to one ratio - cornstarch and shaving cream   I wanted to make rainbow Foam Dough, because, well - rainbows!!!!  So I started by coloring the shaving cream because I figured that would be easiest - I added liquid watercolors, but you could also use food coloring (this, coincidentally, is how we make Shaving Cream Paint).

Then I slowly added cornstarch to each cup and stirred until it started looking ever so slightly doughy.  We kept our dough on the wet side because it was so much fluffier.  The more cornstarch you add, the drier the dough, but it does lose some of that amazing foamy-puffy texture.  Ultimately I'd say our foam dough ended up being slightly more shaving cream than cornstarch.

 

It really is just so foamy and puffy and fluffy and AMAZING.  It's like touching a cloud or a marshmallow...or maybe a marshmallow cloud?  Anyway, the pictures simply do not do it justice.

You can roll it into pretty little balls.  S had her grandma and me on ball rolling duty - and then she would SMOOSH them.  :)

Smooooosh.

It really was such a blast and so unlike any other material we've played with.  Shaving cream is definitely not save to ingest, so poor little X had to sit this one out.  Maybe next year!

We sincerely hope you'll give this one a try - it is something you must experience!!!!

Follow along with us on Facebook, Google+, Pinterest or Subscribe by Email or Bloglovin'!

Please always supervise your infant/child at play.  Please stay within arms reach and never leave infants/children unattended.

Natural Rock Play Space and Outdoor Kitchen

 This post is part of a series on Playspace Design.   Other posts in the series include:
Our Playroom

Our Reading Room

Our Art Room

DIY Outdoor Sound Wall
Dinosaur Garden

This is my favorite, favorite part of our yard.  It makes me happy just being here.  There's the dappled sunlight through the overhanging trees, the gentle rustling of the native grasses - and somehow it all combines to just be perfection.  It's so hard to do a place like this justice through photos...which is why there are SO many in this post.  I really felt like it was the only way to possibly get a feel for it.

When we first looked at our house a year and a half ago, I could see so much potential inside - but the backyard was a big bummer for me.  It was sloped and had three tiers where each flat level was overgrown grass and each slope between was full of vinca or ivy.  If you were a bird looking down on the property the flat areas would make a giant overgrown grass E, if that makes sense.  Anyway, it just didn't feel very fun.  You couldn't move between the levels and the yard was just not that inviting for young children.  My mom had the vision, though.  She assured me that we could make some amazing playspaces in the yard and create ways to move between the areas of the yard more easily.  This area you see here is located at the far bottom right of the "E".  There were two beautiful boulders at the top of the lowest stretch of overgrown grass and I remember telling my mom maybe we could add some rocks here, building off those two boulders, so that the kids could climb between the flat levels?  Well --- this is what my mom created.  A magical playspace modeled after a natural dry stream bed.

S is obsessed with collecting sticks.  Every time we go on a nature walk she's carrying and collecting an assortment the whole way.  So my mom designed four of these stick holders as a sculptural element to the playspace.  S likes to bring the sticks home from all over and place/arrange them in these black PVC pipes that we've buried in the ground.

There is also a water works element to the playspace.  We have this giant metal bucket that we fill with fresh water each time we come out to play and S can use it in either of her sand pits to "cook" the food she's always busy making here, or she can pour it down her hidden pipe.  

In between two rocks there's a slotted opening that leads to a flexible underground pipe we buried when we were making the dry stream bed.  It runs from one side diagonally to the opposite side of the dry stream bed.  If you're quiet, you can hear the water as it travels under the play area.

The pipe is laid at a gradual slope, so S can walk down the path and catch the water coming out of the flexible pipe at the other end.  We have a purple Tubtrug there to catch the water as it comes out.  If S is wanting to cook at the lower sand pit, she'll often send a large quantity of water through the pipes to fill this lower bucket for easier access.

Here's another view of the main water bucket.  S is prepping some muffin tins for the sand batter.  :)  We found all the cooking supplies at our local Goodwill.

Here you can see S's lower sand pit.  We dug a very deep (around 3 feet deep) pit in the dirt and encircled it with stone pavers.  We added several 50 pound bags of play sand to fill it and we keep a garbage can lid over it when not in use to keep wild animals from using it (ew!).  You can see S's array of cooking utensils here near the lower sand pit.  On either side of S are the two orignal beautiful boulders that inspired this whole amazing space.

Here's a finished cake that S has made for the dinosaurs from our Dinosaur Garden.  Doesn't it look delicious?  :)

A view up the dry stream bed.  Once we cleared the area of all the grass and vinca, we laid/buried the pipe, rough cut out the stairs, and dug and filled the sand pits.  We then laid the largest boulders that made the steps and framed the planters.  Next we brought in large river rock and placed them sporadically, finally we filled in the remaining spaces with smaller rocks and pea gravel.  We chose native grasses of varying heights for each of five planters - the largest grasses exist on the perimeters and will grow to about 5 feet in height at maturity, eventually creating an even more private area.

A closer look at the upper sand pit from behind the upper grasses.

My mom also found this long rectangular flagstone and earmarked it for a bench/oven.  S can sit on it to eat her fantastic baked goods, or she can place the muffin tin and some of the smaller pots and pans underneath to cook them in the "oven".

Going back up the path to fetch another bowl.

The sand pits are so much fun.  We'd considered mud, but ultimately decided that sand would be easier for S to work with as mud can sometimes get a bit difficult to dig through when it's dry.

My little chef hard at work in her little sanctuary.

Well, I hope I've managed to capture a little bit of the perfection and peace that exists in our amazing dry stream bed play space.  We are so thankful to my mom who had this incredible vision and brought it to life!  I still can't believe this used to be a snarl of grass and vinca...

Sometime next week I will try to post the remaining elements of our backyard so you can see how everything works together!

Follow along with us on Facebook, Google+, Pinterest or Subscribe by Email!

Please always supervise your infant/child at play.  Please stay within arms reach and never leave infants/children unattended.

Backyard Design: DIY Outdoor Sound Wall/Music Station

 This post is part of a series on Playspace Design.   Other posts in the series include:
Our Playroom

Our Reading Room

Our Art Room
Dinosaur Garden

Natural Rock Play Space and Outdoor Kitchen

I'll talk more about the whole layout behind our backyard design in the final post that gives the overview, but one of the things on my list of must-haves was an outdoor sound wall.  There's a beautiful hydrangea behind it and when it's in bloom with giant blue-purple blooms this view is rather breathtaking.  (The two other tan beams you see in the background of the photo are the supports for our deck above.)

To make our sound wall, I first went shopping at our Seattle Goodwill.  I searched for anything that I felt would make interesting sounds (for the wall itself) and for any interesting and unusual items we could use as "drum sticks".  I ended up purchasing two types of colander, a cream (tea) dispenser, a fish and a clover gelatin mold, part of a broiler, a drying rack, a bell, and a pot lid.  The awesome rusted crow was actually left behind by our home's previous owners and he is the perfect addition there in the upper right hand corner.

I also picked up a few strange shaped whisks, some interesting large spoons, and a potato masher for, well, banging.  :)  I keep those loose parts in a clear plastic shower caddy (the caddy keeps them organized, but the holes in the shower caddy don't allow for the collection of water).

Once I'd purchased all the items, I laid them out to determine the size of the wall I wanted to make.  We decided on a 2 x 12 single piece of wood and had it cut at Home Depot to the length we wanted/our space was able to accomodate.  We bolted that piece of wood to two 4 x 4 pillars that we also had cut to size on site.  The pillars are buried 1/3 in the ground (you can just dig a big hole, and once you get the wall where you want using a level, and then add pea gravel to "set" the pillars before adding dirt) and we chose the height based on S's height at the time (we built this over a year ago, and chose a height that she could reach at the time, but that would also grow with her).

I mounted most of the items with the same hooks I used to mount X's texture circles for his Sensory Board, though a few items necessitated screws.  I tried to hang them in ways that would create the widest variety of sounds - for instance, you can see that the broiler plate S is "playing" is partially on and partially off the board so she can investigate how that affects the sound it makes.  I love that we were able to make a wall long enough that several children can make "music" at once (as they do when S has lots of friends over).

And if you're not yet standing on your own, you can always watch and make music with the spoons and whisks in the shower caddy.   :)

Follow along with us on Facebook, Google+, Pinterest or Subscribe by Email or Bloglovin'!

Please always supervise your infant/child at play.  Please stay within arms reach and never leave infants/children unattended.

Starter Art Kit from Discount School Supply

What I'd Put in and Why

When I surveyed readers on Fun at Home with Kids' Facebook page, most people were interested in me running a series of posts reviewing Discount School Supply products that culminated in a shopping list.  If you haven't seen all of the posts in the series, here is a list of them:

Golden Glitter Slime (and Dragons)

Painting the Bathroom Mirror

Pretend Baking:  Painting a 3D Cake

Baby/Toddler Colored Rice Art

10+ Ways to Use Fingerpaint
Make Your Own Puffy Paint Shirt

Like my Sensory Starter Kit shopping lists for Target and the Dollar Tree, I'll include what I would put in with a list of alternates.

Before we get into the list, I'd like to say the reason behind it is that Discount School Supply charges a bit for shipping (understandably, since paint is heavy!), unless you purchase $79 worth of supplies - then the shipping is free.  I know that $79 sounds like a lot to spend, but the supplies last quite a long time.  You guys know how often we use our liquid watercolors, and our bottles are still around half full.  I generally find that if I plan well, one shipment from Discount School Supply will last us at least a year, if not longer.

Some other helpful money saving tips:
Discount School Supply's Facebook page announces a promo code for the week just about every Tuesday.  You could also try submitting a craft/activity to their website - if your craft/activity is chosen, you'll be sent a $50 giftcard to use at Discount School Supply.  And finally, don't feel like you need to buy every color of every paint.  We generally stock 3-4 paints per color - the one exception being liquid watercolors.  I definitely LOVE rainbows, so I had to have a full set of those.  :)

All photos used courtesy of Discount School Supply

1.  Liquid Watercolors

 We use our liquid watercolors constantly (in lieu of food coloring, but also as watercolor paint).  In fact, you can click here to see a long list of activities that feature them.

2.  Washable Tempera Paints and/or Fingerpaints

If you have a very young child, fingerpaints may be the way to go.  If your child is older - they may prefer tempera paints to fingerpaints.  Fingerpaints are a bit goopier and are slightly translucent whereas tempera paints are much more like what you think of as a traditional paint (we have and love the Confetti Fingerpaints).  S enjoys both, so we have a few colors in each type, but you may want to go all fingerpaints with an infant/toddler or all tempera paints with an older preschool aged child.  For ideas on how to use these sort of paints beyond unstructured painting, check out our post on Painting the Bathroom Mirror and 10+ Ways to Use Fingerpaint

3.  Paper

We have a butcher paper dispenser/rolls from Ikea that we use, and we alternate between using that, watercolor paper, and construction paper.  Discount School Supply has really nice large sized high quality construction paper.

4.  Brushes

Now that she's older, S likes having a variety of sizes of paintbrush to choose from.  She would probably most enjoy this set currently.  However, when she was younger, she really liked having chubbier brushes.  She has been using the Wacky Painting Tools and Foam Rollers like crazy as well, so those are some other types of brushes to consider as well.  And if you're going for a set of fingerpaints only, well, you already have the painting tools you need.  :)


The above are sort of the base supplies necessary to create lots of art.  Here are some added bonus supplies that are also fun:

5.  Tissue Paper

We love using this in art projects - especially when making Contact Paper Window Art.

6.  Contact Paper

To see all the ways we've used contact paper click here.

7.  Make it More Additives

We used the Make it Shine to make our Golden Slime and we use the Make it Puffy to make our Puffy Paint Shirt.  We love these and they're a fun way to make a set of paint even more exciting.

8.  Biocolor Paint

You will want to get some of these if you're looking for permanent paints to use in a variety of settings with an older child.  These were also necessary to make our Puffy Paint Shirt.

9.  Plastic Glitter

We used this to make our Golden Slime and it's amazing.  It is the best glitter I've seen.  I love that it doesn't dump everywhere and that it is plastic and is therefore glass and metal free!

10.  Seashells

We have a set of Medium Sea Shells that we use frequently in sensory bins and small worlds (you can see some of them in our Fizzing Hidden Ocean World!).

11.  Stamp Ink

The Colorations Stamp Ink is truly the most washable stamp ink I've ever encountered.  S enjoys inking her hands and stamping that way as well as using the stamps - so I REALLY appreciate that it doesn't stain her skin.

12.  Kid Safety Scissors

S loves practicing her scissor skills and she is old enough/careful enough that we feel comfortable with her having metal safety scissors.  We both appreciate how well/cleanly they cut.  We also have some of the Colorations Plastic Scissors - which we love for playdough play.  These plastic scissors are ultra safe - the blade is plastic - it won't cut hair, etc - but they do not cut paper (particularly thin paper) very cleanly because they are plastic.  If you are concerned about your child getting hurt with scissors (or cutting their hair - ha!) then the plastic scissors may be a better choice.

13.  Foam Paint

This foam paint is such a fun sensory experience.  We also love playing with shaving cream paint, which is similar in appearance, but foam paint is much drier/fluffier in texture and the color is much richer.  We love using our foam paint for full body painting (hands and feet at the same time!) and we have also made a beautiful 3D pretend cake with it.

Well, I hope that gives you all plenty of options.  I do not make any commission off of the sale of any of these products, nor was I paid to write this post (I did receive some free product to use in writing some of the previous posts, but was not asked or obligated to write this post) - I just am a fan of Discount School Supply and their product lines.  We've tried a lot of paints/glitter/etc in the last four years, and these are hands down our favorites!

Follow along with us on Facebook, Google+, Pinterest or Subscribe by Email!

Please always supervise your infant/child at play.  Please stay within arms reach and never leave infants/children unattended.

Make Your Own Puffy Paint Shirt

Disclosure:  This is part of a series reviewing art supplies, specifically those from Discount School Supply, our favorite art supply company.  Some of the products reviewed are our own; some of the products reviewed were provided free of charge from Discount School Supply.  I will note which were provided for review within the series.  Though I was offered some of these products for free, the opinions offered are my own and were not swayed by the free products.  This post also includes some affiliate links to Amazon for your convenience.

Other posts in this series include:

Golden Glitter Slime (and Dragons)

Painting the Bathroom Mirror

Pretend Baking:  Painting a 3D Cake

Baby/Toddler Colored Rice Art

10+ Ways to Use Fingerpaint
Starter Art Kit from Discount School Supply

Of all the things I received from Discount School Supply, I was most intrigued by their Make It Puffy additive (part of the Make It More series - we used the Make It Shine additive to make our Golden Slime). I loved puffy paint as a kid, and so I was eager to introduce S to the glory of it.  Little did I know this is the COOLEST PUFFY PAINT EVER.  No seriously.  It's a good 5-10 times puffier than the store bought kind.  While watching it puff in the oven, I literally exclaimed loudly "this is seriously the coolest thing ever!" at least three times.

I bought S a blank white t-shirt at Michaels because they are $3 there.  You can't beat a $3 shirt.  They don't carry really small sizes, so this is a Youth Small - meaning it's a bit massively large on my smaller-than-average almost 4 year old.  I figured she wouldn't care (she doesn't) and it would give her a larger "canvas" to work with (it did), so it's ultimately all good.  

The directions on the Make It Puffy bottle call for mixing with one of a few lines of permanent (or as S calls it, "permative") paint.  Luckily I had thrown four bottles of Biocolor into our last personal order from Discount School Supply and hadn't used them yet.  The Biocolor series is a permanent paint available at Discount School Supply.  I was happy to discover that the Biocolor paint is as vibrant as the other Colorations paints we've used.  

You could literally paint the Make It Puffy + Biocolor mixture onto the fabric, but I thought we ought to use our favorite squeezy condiment bottles since that was liable to produce the most puffy version of the paint.  As per the instructions, I mixed one part Make It Puffy to one part Biocolor paint in each squeezy bottle.

S eagerly set to work.  She had a serious vision with the shirt - here she is decorating the collar very carefully.

I laid out a splat mat on the table and on the floor underneath her to catch any stray paint since it would very likely stain.

She covered one sleeve with green polka dots and the other with yellow polka dots.

When she was done, it looked like this.  The directions say to leave it until it is completely dry (approximately 24 hours).  Well, we left it around 30 hours and there were still a few spots that were damp.  I'd love to blame the 4 year old for the impatience here, but I'll be honest and fess up that it was me who couldn't wait to see what would happen when we puffed it by heating...so I popped the shirt in the oven (figuring that the oven heat would dry the wet spots).

In the oven it puffed like magic!  It was SO cool to watch.  If you look towards the back of the photo below, though, you'll notice a really dark spot of green that is not puffy.  Yep, that was the part that was still damp when I popped it into the oven.  Whoops.  So please, if you make your own shirt, do follow the directions and wait until it is all dry.  If you use the squeezy condiment bottle method we did, I would guess it will take a full 48 hours to dry fully.

Luckily S loves her shirt - unpuffed portions and all!  She's worn it to preschool (it was a big hit) and it's been through the wash (yes, it's washable!  You can even run it through the dryer!) and it's still completely puffy and awesome.  As you can see, S used a lot of paint to make the shirt - and in all we went through a little under half of the Make It Puffy bottle (in case that information is helpful).  We also opted to bake the shirt in the oven - you can iron to make it puffy as well, but I don't trust myself with an iron, hahaha.  Cooking in the oven did produce a smell, but it was not too bad (the paints are non-toxic) and we just opened the windows.  I'd say it was about as smelly as when we made our Heart Shaped Crayons back in February.

We can't wait to make more puffy shirts!  They are just too fun!

This post concludes our series on Discount School Supply supplies - I'll be back on Saturday to share my shopping list of must-haves from their site with you all!

Follow along with us on Facebook, Google+, Pinterest or Subscribe by Email!

Please always supervise your infant/child at play.  Please stay within arms reach and never leave infants/children unattended.